The Citi-Zen Foundation
The Citi-Zen Foundation provides a unique service in the field of Conflict resolution, Crisis and Stress-management by using a synthesis of practices which work from the causal to the symptomatic levels.
The causality of conflict and stress -although experienced through many, apparently unique circumstances- has as its basic energy, a common dualistic infrastructure. The solution is therefore an ability to change this generic structure; to transform dual based energies into a non-dual energies. An understanding of the experiential psychology of this duality is also a key component when working with this transformation.
The problem of basic needs compounds most social stress, with which we are presently so embroiled that it is hard to see the solution. Thus Citi-Zen stress-management tools for social conflict resolution are specifically focused to deal with the immediate issues of social stress, leading to an awareness of their source and its transformation. Just as the cycle of hostility depends on misperception of ones own self and power and a misperception of the other, so the cycle of peace and co-operation depends on perception. The ability to transform stress and conflict through the power of the heart is the key to developing true perception. Only through the cultivation of positive and conscious social interaction, may we come to see more clearly the solution to the problem of meeting basic needs on a large scale.
The principles of harmony and conflict at a social level exist because every person and group experiences the uniqueness of their agency distinctly from that of others. Society being a composition of individual's and group's with this concern, finds itself then to be a network of power relations. All social relations are relations of power, as Foucault has famously said. Social relations have power as their primary concern because most agents are insecure about their own power. Thus conflict arises based on insecurities and imagined threats. The entire social network is a cohesion of such conflict status.
So the central problem is two fold; we experience our ' selves ' as distinct identities and, we do not know how to process powers external to our own and its sense of agency and liberty. Thus we react and create the infrastructure of conflict which is predicated on fear; which fear is our lack of ability to embrace, digest and transform external powers. Herein we fortify our sense of unique agency to ward off such intimacy and in so doing compound the problem. The sense of self provides the boundary and signifies that which we must defend, and that which we must defend against, which is outside our self and thus not our self. And that which must be defended. The possibility of an external power greater than our own, spells death to the sense of identity which is insecure. This 'normative paradigm' results in many distortions of human values and engenders conflict consciousness.
The question, then, is how can one embrace and process external powers, in whatever form and whichever relationship, and still remain stable, secure and true to ones own power and being? The answer is to find a source of power within, that is superior to the dualistic energy basis of conflict which inspires such ' me vs you, us vs them ' perspectives. Citi-Zen uses a special meditative practice to do this. After initially strengthening ones soul alignment via specific meditation, one then has conscious use of an inner resource of non-dual energy. This then becomes the reservoir into which one can dissolve the dualistic energy structure of conflict. Dualistic energies can only exist if their poles have integrity. If such energies touch non-dual energy their poles are collapsed and become absorbed into, and transformed into the non-dual field. Through this practice one gains the experience and power to transform the dualistic nature of conflict into the non-dual nature of peace and love, for self and others by embracing and transforming it, as opposed to the ' normative paradigm ' of fear and separation.
Social tension, existing on the basis of the misperception of fear and the hasty reaction to others misperceptions, also perpetuates cycles of subconscious, as well as conscious reactionariness. Unwisdom is taken to be intelligence on a subconscious level, which exists to protect itself and its interests. This is logical until the subconscious is enlightened by the awareness of greater ways of being which the soul cognises. The task of the person who is becoming a peace maker is to mediate the greater understanding of peaceful interconnectedness of the soul to the subconscious conflict archetype. During the development of the transformatory skill the usual subconscious fear of other people can then also be dissolved, transfiguring relationships into spaces composed of trusting, honest, conscious and respectful qualities based on the power to relate lovingly. Thus a heart focus in relationships is engendered, and through heart polarisation, greater meaningfulness in relationships and life is experienced.
On the conscious level Citi-Zen uses Tong Len meditation as its basic method for realisation of, and practice of the power of love to transform fear based conflict . This realisation is unfolded through the scientific structure of mediation discussed above. An understanding of this science prevents the practitioner from a detour in ineffective, rhetorical idealism. Tong Len is a Buddhist meditation, however its basic structure is similarly found in other spiritual paths like Christianity, where Love and forgiveness are the core elements. Tong len presupposes a certain consciousness of love with which to begin.
In Citi-Zen Tong Len meditation the object to realise is the same non-dual energy field of the soul, however, through its utility 'in relation' to conflict, power and the world, etc. In other words how to practice using the non-dual energy of the soul. Through the realisation of the souls energy and it relationship with the world brought into conscious alignment, one can then transform the problematic nature of the world in relation to, and into the transcendent peace and power of the soul. Citi-Zen provides a practical, direct and astute means of its realisation, through using these immediate social problems and their transformation through love as its core structural concern in realising the practice - and therein the value and meaning- of spiritual love. This is not an abstract ideal, but a viable means of transforming an emerging crisis field into a field of joy and laughter. In Citi-Zen tong-Len one has a practical tool through which to experience, train and master the principle love practices contained in many religious path, however in a non-religious, non-sectarian format. Practical tools help make ideologies tangible. Citi-Zen Tong Len can indeed arrive at the realisation of the souls non-dual bliss by using the contemporary world problems as the means, in the same way that a fire consumes rubbish blocking a road, becoming brighter, clearing the way and the view.
Conflict is a question of relationship, or rather conflict exist in relationship of one or more things to an or more others. It is a question of duality. Thus if one resolves duality within oneself into a non-dual energy one has mastered conflict potential and in the embodiment of this through the circumstantial world, becomes perfected in harmlessness and a protagonist of peace. To develop such skill is responsible citizenship.
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